Riley Curry and the Power of Opportunity Marketing

These days sports are about much more than just good sportsmanship and great entertainment – it’s a money-making machine for players, teams and sponsors. Every athlete it seems has their own shoe, shirt or even fragrance; and team marketing is even bigger.

That’s why both the National Basketball Association and the Golden State Warriors must be ecstatic about the fact that they are getting huge worldwide publicity right now, even in countries where basketball is not a huge deal, practically for free, thanks to 2015 MVP Stephen Curry’s two year old daughter Riley Curry.

For days she’s been the top basketball trending tag on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Vine. She’s helped make the Golden State Warriors an internationally known name in places where no one had a clue who they were, something that certainly isn’t hurting merchandise sales ahead of the NBA Finals.

And thanks to content like this it’s not hard to see why:

And advertisers are certainly not above cashing right in on Riley’s new found fame as well.

Maker of the cool Curry One kicks, Under Armour knows how to recognize stars early. (The company locked up Steph before anybody figured he’d take home MVP hardware.) Turns out that Under Armour recognized the star power in Riley even before she grabbed the microphone, too. Read the full story right here… |

Is it OK to use a two year old as a marketing tool? Well, that may be a debate for another time. Although she doesn’t really seem to mind, Riley is a great example of Opportunity Marketing.

No doubt the NBA, the Golden State Warriors and even Under Armour all had very set marketing plans for the Western Conference Finals – but once Riley came along why not make the most of it? They all even got a hand from ESPN ‘bad guy’ Skip Bayliss who criticized Steph allowing his daughter on-stage and disrupting the ‘serious business’ of the press conference which of course only made the public love her even more!

Sometimes marketing opportunities just present themselves, as was the case here, and the key to making the most of them is a willingness to deviate from the set plan, however long it’s been in place.

This is something that we discuss with our clients all the time, learning how to think outside-the-box of established marketing wisdom and use what works for you – not what some text book says should. And while you may not have an uber cute and sassy toddler to help you market your brand you may have a selling point that is just as unique right under your nose.